Capacitors are commonly employed in electronic systems to store charge and minimize voltage excursions caused by fast load current variations. In order to maximize capacitor effectiveness, these devices are often physically placed at very close proximity to load devices. An example of such placement is the attachment of capacitors to the package substrate of microprocessors (CPU's) wherein the capacitors are mounted on the opposite side of the substrate, facing the processor chip, in order to minimize the physical and electrical distance from the processor power grid and the stored charge within the capacitors. This facilitates faster charge transfer from the capacitors to the CPU power grid and significantly minimizes voltage noise on the power grid.
Prior art packaging of high-performance VLSI components are illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. In FIG. 1, a high-performance VLSI package includes a very large scale integrated circuit component labeled ‘Microprocessor’, attached to a substrate labeled ‘Package Substrate’, and a thermally conductive object labeled ‘Heat Spreader’ attached to the VLSI component and the substrate. Also, pluralities of passive devices labeled ‘Capacitors’ are attached under the package substrate. The high-performance VLSI package is placed in an electronic socket mounted on a larger substrate labeled ‘Motherboard’. In FIG. 2, a VLSI package includes a VLSI chip labeled ‘CPU’ attached to a package substrate. Active electronic circuit components labeled ‘Active device’ are attached beside passive components such as capacitors labeled ‘Caps’ on the underside of the package substrate that is directly opposite to the VLSI component mounted on the package substrate.
Greater levels of integration of transistors devices within a microprocessor, a consequence of device scaling, leads to greater power consumption despite the reduction in operating voltages. This leads to increasing operating currents, and consequently an increased need for stored charge in close proximity to the microprocessor. While capacitor technology continues to scale, providing increased capacitance values within the same or smaller form factors, the noise created by state-transitions of CPU's, referred to as voltage droops and overshoots, requires alternate, active techniques that improve the effectivity of capacitance charge storage.
Active devices have been designed in the art to attempt to minimize power grid noise on CPU, and have been assembled in close proximity to the CPU alike capacitors as indicated in FIG. 1. This solution suffers from two primary disadvantages:                The active devices occupy real-estate on the package substrate, displacing capacitors        The electrical path from the capacitors feeding the active devices and then into the CPU from the active devices is slow because of the physical distance between the circuits and the capacitors feeding them with electrical charge.        
These disadvantages greatly diminish the effectivity of the active circuits employed for noise reduction, and a need exists for improvement upon this power system architecture.